Footsteps in Time (The After Cilmeri Series Book 1)

Footsteps in Time (Chapter Twelve)

David

Mom froze, her hand on David's shoulder, her face still. "Father?"

"He's alive, Mom," David said. "And he's here, at Rhuddlan."

"Oh, David." Mom put the back of her hand to her mouth. "I didn't dare...I mean, I hardly dared to even think that he might be, that I might be able to see him again. So you think..." She stopped.

"Do I think he'll want to see you?" David said. "Yeah, I know he will."

"But how did you ... how did you find him? How did you know?"

"We didn't," David said. "Father did, the moment we arrived. We literally drove into his attackers at Cilmeri and saved him."

"He went to Cilmeri?!" Mom's voice went high. "He went to Cilmeri on December 11th?"

"It's okay, Mom," Anna said, trying to calm her down. "He felt he had to, despite your warning."

"He could have died!" Mom glared at David and then at Anna, and then the two women burst into tears again.

All David could do was stare at them in amazement. They should be happy! Two of the smartest, most independent-minded women in all of Wales, both of whom had managed to trek miles and miles across unfamiliar terrain, surviving entirely on courage and nerves, were falling to pieces again.

Mom turned to David, her cheeks wet, blinking her eyes to rid them of tears. "This is too much to take in. You were a child last time I saw you, David, and now you are grown and Anna is married." She turned back to Anna. "You got married at what? Seventeen? Eighteen?!"

David tried injecting rationality into the proceedings. "Math's a great guy, Mom. He can't believe how lucky he is to have her; and the marriage secures a beneficial alliance for Father. It's all worked out really well."

"Besides, I'm nineteen now," Anna said.

Mom stared at them for a second and then gave a laugh that was almost a bark. "See! Precisely my point!" And then, more thoughtfully, she said, "Does Math know where you're from?"

Anna nodded. "He knows, but I think he's just beginning to believe."

"It's always been impossible to believe," Mom said. "And I'm living it."

"Math is pretty grounded in the here and now," David said. "He told me that if Anna looks Welsh, speaks Welsh, and is acknowledged as Welsh by the Prince of Wales, that is good enough for him."

"I guess there is something to be said for that," Mom said. "We will need hard-headed and practical people in the new Wales."

"Don't you remember when you came to Wales the first time?" Anna said. "Do you remember what it was like trying to find your way when you didn't speak the language and knew nothing about anything that was important?"

Mom sighed. "I do remember. I remember very well. If not for Llywelyn, I don't know that I would have survived. Before I knew it, we were in love and I was pregnant with David. I managed to bypass most of the trauma by ignoring it."

"We couldn't ignore it, Mom," Anna said. "It was all so awful at first."

Mom nodded. "I know, sweetheart. That you're standing in front of me, whole and happy, tells me that you and David have done remarkably well, at a much younger age than I was."

"We did have each other," Anna said.

"And we also had Father who knew who we were from the start," David said.